Title: Assistant Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Education: B.A., neuroscience, Smith College; Ph.D., neuroscience, Yale University; Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School
Age: 39
Mentors: Dr. Thomas Biederer at Yale and Dr. Michael E. Greenberg at the Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School.
Words of encouragement/wisdom: “Choose your own mentors. Don’t feel that someone has to be officially a supervisor on paper to be an incredible, supportive mentor to you.”
After six years as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, neuroscientist Dr. Lucas Martin Cheadle began his position as an assistant professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in 2020. Dr. Linda Van Aelst, professor at CSHL, describes Cheadle’s research as creative and original in nature and having the potential to lead to breakthroughs in treating human disease.
Cheadle’s research at CSHL focuses on understanding how immune cells communicate with neurons to promote brain development, and how impairments in communication between the nervous and immune systems give rise to neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia. Van Aelst says that Cheadle’s excellence is obvious, noting publication of five first-author studies in high-impact journals and awards, including from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
“His intensity and commitment to research stands out … in terms of thinking creatively and working on important problems,” says Dr. Michael E. Greenberg, department chair of the department of neurobiology, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, who supervised and mentored Cheadle. “He’s made some really important discoveries that he’s now moving forward with.”
Cheadle appreciates the uniqueness of CSHL, as its relatively small size enables and fosters collaboration across scientific disciplines.
CSHL does not have an undergraduate program, but it is affiliated with nearby Stony Brook University. There is a graduate program on the CSHL campus and each year a dynamic group of graduate students engages in a well-rounded educational experience that includes diverse areas of science. Cheadle is now teaching — this year giving a lecture in a course on the development of the visual system — and he is excited to co-teach with other faculty going forward.
